Power electronics is a core technology and a key enabler of next generation computing and energy systems. From power-demanding processors for artificial intelligence (AI) applications to the increased integration of renewables and energy storage on the grid, the rapid pace of technological advancements has created an unprecedented demand for power electronics with capabilities far beyond what is achievable today. Hybrid switched-capacitor (SC) converters present promising opportunities for high-performance power electronics by leveraging the superior energy density of capacitors over magnetics and the scaling laws of power semiconductor devices. In this talk, I will introduce a family of hybrid SC converters designed to address the power delivery challenges of high-performance computing platforms through innovative circuit architectures, magnetics design, control techniques, and packaging. Various hardware prototypes will be presented, demonstrating performance that surpasses state-of-the-art academic works and commercial products. Additionally, I will present an analytical framework to theoretically compare and evaluate different topologies to gain deeper insight into their fundamental scaling trends. Finally, I will discuss how this emerging class of power converters can open new avenues in data center power delivery, green hydrogen production, and multidisciplinary scientific research.
Biography
Yicheng Zhu received his B.Eng. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University in 2017 and 2020, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2024. He is currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. His research interests include circuit topologies, control techniques, analytical models, and high-performance implementations of hybrid switched-capacitor converters for computing and energy systems. He is a recipient of the IEEE Power and Energy Society Outstanding Student Scholarship, the Outstanding Tsinghua Master’s Thesis Award, the Berkeley Fellowship, the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship, the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, the Teaching Effectiveness Award, and the Ross N. Tucker Memorial Award.
